This invention relates to parachutes, and more particularly to parachutes that can be steered in a desired path by releasing one or more suspension lines from their riser strap link.
It is known in the art to modify a conventional parachute canopy to be steerable by releasing selected suspension lines from their respective riser links. Such a technique is best illustrated by a U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,489 issued to Jon T Matsuo on Dec. 18, 1973. In that patented construction, the lower looped ends of the selected suspension lines are anchored to their respective riser links by a line arranged in daisy-chain configuration secured in place by a breakable tie line. A sharp pull on the lanyard by the parachutist breaks the tie line, which sequentially unravels the daisy-chain slip knots to jettison the selected suspension lines. This patented parachute system has been adopted by the U.S. Navy as a standard operating procedure, however it has been found that forming the line into daisy-chain is a complicated procedure, and rigging errors have occurred, even with close supervision, which prevents the release of the designated suspension lines and degrades the reliability of the deployed parachute.